A Beautiful Day
by SmiLego
Summary: Love is in the air, at least for some people.


Chloe parked two houses away from the Madsen residence. It used to be her house as well but since her stepfather moved in it didn't feel like home anymore. She got out of her truck. She grabbed the flyer that was stuck on her windshield and had driven her nearly crazy the whole trip. "Wanted: lost prototype drone, unique, irreplaceable. Last seen, February tenth near Blackwell Academy. Contact this number if found. Fifty-dollar reward." She threw the paper to the ground, lit a smoke and waited. After ten minutes had passed the postman showed up, dropped something by the mailbox and went on his way. Chloe crushed her cigarette on the pavement and ran for her mother's house. She opened the mailbox, took out an envelope and inspected it.

"Sweet! They've finally arrived! It's about time. This is gonna be hella awesome!"

She pocketed the envelope, took out her house key, went to the door and very quietly opened it. She took a quick look around: no one was home. Only a note left on the fridge door that read "Reservation for 9pm at La Chaise. XOXO David". "XOXO David? Really? Ew!" How could he afford a table at a place like that with his security guard pay check, she would never know. At least it meant she would have the house for herself tonight. "Now, time for the next step of the plan: get the tools and missing materials." She went to the garage, gathered a cardboard cutter, a pair of goggles, a tube of glue, a brush and a small bucket of black paint. "Sometime Step Douche's junk come quite handy." She then proceeded to drop the bounty next to a drone in the back of the truck and smacked herself in the head. "Bad Chloe! You're lucky Rachel wasn't here to hear you say that!". She put on the radio, changed stations several times until it wasn't spewing garbage anymore and started to drive. "Next step: assembling everything!"

* * *

Chloe was back at the American Rust, her home away from home. She was in front of her truck hood, busying herself with some cardboard.

"The shape should be just right, OK now I glue in the wings. There. Perfect! Let's see if it fits." She lifted what looked like a box with wings up, went to the back of the truck and placed it on the drone that was resting there. The drone didn't seem to mind it at all. "Fit like a glove. I'm a genius! It's paint time now." She removed the box from the drone and put it delicately on the ground. She opened the bucket of paint and went to work. A few strokes of the brush later the cardboard box, and a large part of the ground, was now cover in black. "Hum... it needs a personal touch." She fished in her pocket for a blue marker and drew a small feather on the side. "That will do! Time to go now." She went to gather the leftovers and tools. She'd forgot to close the cardboard cutter properly so when she picked it up, her finger stroked the blade. Blood started to slowly drop from the wound, two drops landed on the front of the cardboard box. "Fucking hell that hurts! And it's gonna ruin my beautiful creation!" She took her napkin and tried to remove the blood, it left a mark. "I can salvage that." She took a red marker from her pocket and drew circle over where the blood had been. "There, it looks like bloody eyes now. That's even better!" She put the marker back in its pocket and dropped the box in the trunk.

"Now let's hope Brooke isn't sick today or else the whole plan will go down the toilet." She grabbed her cell phone.

* * *

"Yo U there?" Chloe texted to Brooke.

"What? Who is this?" Brooke replied two minutes later.

"It's Chloe." Chloe sent right back.

"Who?" Brooke replied after a minute of silence.

* * *

"The fuck? We were in the same class for nearly 2 years, how can she not remember me? Just... Never mind."

* * *

"Chloe Price I got Ur drone" Chloe sent to Brooke.

"You found my drone? Excellent! Where can I meet you?" Brooke replied after a long pause.

"BW roof 1pm" Chloe immediately followed with.

"Blackwell's roof, I'll be right there, thanks Chloe." Brooke replied after a few seconds.

* * *

"She is taking her sweet time to type all that. She should really learn how to text properly." Chloe switched off her phone. "Time to go back to Blackhell now." She jumped in the truck and she was off to her last favorite place on Earth.

* * *

Chloe was waiting on the roof with a pair of goggles in hands, the drone wearing its new cardboard cover was at her feet. "Hum where is she? Oh right there. Okay, perfect!"

The roof's door creaked behind her.

"Hi uh...Chloe?" It looked like Brooke had arrived.

Chloe put down her goggles and turned towards her guest. "Hey Brooke."

"You really found it! Nice. Thanks a lot for giving it back to me. I thought I had lost it forever. I was so scared." Brooke moved closer but before she could reach for her drone, Chloe stopped her.

"I heard you put out a reward for it..." Chloe waited patiently.

"Oh right." Brooke fished into her pocket for her wallet. "Well I only have a twenty on me but I can give you the rest tomorrow if that's ok with you?"

"You don't happen to have the controller for your drone on you by any chance?" That was the big gamble of the day. But Brooke was a nerd she wouldn't go anywhere without all her gear. Right?

Brooke looked quizzingly at Chloe. "I do... Why?"

"Well since we are here. Could you let me fly it a little? Since I found it for you and all. And this way we can forget about the rest of the reward. Deal?" Chloe tried to display her most friendly smile.

"Yeah I guess I can make an exception, sure, but did you ever fly one of these before?"

Chloe pocketed the bills then scratched the back of her neck. "I was hoping you would show me."

"Yeah OK." Brooke took her controller out of her bag and went to the drone. "What is that on my drone?" She pointed at the cardboard box.

"Just a little dress up, part of the plan, don't mind it. That reminds me, I almost forgot." She took out the envelope and a roll of duct tape then proceeded to attach the envelope to the top of the cardboard box. "OK how do I pilot this thing?"

Brooke handed the controller to Chloe. "There is the start button. You go up and down with this one and the other direction with this handle. Go slowly at first OK?"

Chloe pressed the start button and the drone stirred to life. She smashed the up button and it flew vertically for a good three meters.

"Wow careful there!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Chloe brought the drone back to more reasonable height and made it move left, right then circle around them.

"You're a natural at this!"

"Thanks."

"What are you planning on with all this?"

"You will see. Could you grab the goggle and tell me if Rachel's still near her tree?"

Brooke took the goggles and looked down on the Blackwell's front courtyard. "Yes, she is still sitting there."

"Perfect." Chloe flew the drone over the roof until it circled over the tree.

"Looks like she is steering up now."

Chloe wanted to bring the drone down slowly but her fingers had other ideas. The drone plummeted to the ground to stop just shy of Rachel's head.

"That was close. You could have broken the drone with a fall like that!"

"Sorry!" Chloe landed the drone on Rachel's lap. "Okay, what is she doing now?"

"Let me see. Um. She is standing now and... She is spinning around and hugging my drone! There, she sees your envelope, finally. And she is... Looks like she is crying now."

Chloe was trying to bring the drone back up. "What? No, no, no. That's not the reaction I was expecting. I need to go. There take your controller back." Chloe threw the controller to Brooke that was barely able to grab it and took control of the drone before it crashed to the ground. "And thanks for the help!" She frantically opened the roof's door and rushed down. In the back she could barely hear Brooke asking her about her goggles.

* * *

Rachel was done with her lunch and went to the courtyard to rest under her favorite tree by the Blackwell's fountain. The weather was warmer than expected for a February day, she hoped the cold wouldn't bite her pants too much. She sat down and had a look around. Love was in the air, it was hopelessly inescapable. The "Total Eclipse of the Heart" Vortex party's posters were plastered all over the school. On a nearby bench, Juliet was hand locked with her sweetheart Zachary, whispering in his ear. Dana Ward was walking with Logan, laughing at something he said. Rachel's pocket buzzed. Speaking of hopeless.

Frank, her drug dealer with benefit, just sent her his usual uninspired hook-up request

"Yo Lioness. Wanna come over tonight?"

After how he had acted the other day there was no way she would spend another night with him. She ignored the text, switched off her phone instead and sat under her tree. Sleep overcame her and she started drifting away.

A light buzzing woke her up. Was it night already? She looked around, she was surrounded by a strange shadow. She looked up to see a flying object circling around obscuring the sun. Suddenly the flying thing fell towards her only to stop just above her head. It proceeded to brush the top of her head then slipped down her face to finish on her lap. It was a strange drone covered by a black shell with wings. A memory came to her. A song she recently had a conversation about with her new favorite teacher.

"No way!" She saw the red eyes, turned the drone around and discovered a blue mark on the side. "Close enough."

Rachel was overrun by warm feeling. She stood up and started to sing to herself. "Oh tell me Bird, take me away. Let's go back to our old land..." She span and twirled stopping only short of falling into the fountain. She hugged the drone then saw it was carrying an envelope. She put the drone on the side and removed the envelope from it. The drone went back to the sky and disappears over the front building roof. She looked at the contain of the envelope. "Oh." She had in her hands two tickets for a "Black Crows Ate My Shorts" June concert. Now that she was thinking more about it, the whole thing was too rushed and a bit too childish as well. Of course I had to come from her blue punk. They had spoken about going to this concert a few months ago. But she had hope for something else. For someone else. She felt a couple of tears running down her cheek. She took a napkin from her pocket and dried them off before they would do more damage to her make up.

Speaking of the tattooed punk, the doors of the main building swung open and Chloe ran out of it towards her.

"Rach! Rach!"

"Chloe! What are you doing IN Blackwell?"

"Not happy to see me?"

"Yes for course I'm happy but you usually appear on the other side of the yard."

"Well, surprise! So what do you think?"

"We finally have them! That's gonna be sick!"

"Hella yeah! But what about the drone?"

"What about it?"

"Well it was black and it had wings, just like a black crow, get it?"

"Yes, Chloe, I get it."

"Hey, wanna come over tonight? Step Douche is going out with Joyce so we will have the house to ourselves. We could order some pizza and watch Blade Runner."

"What a romantic movie..."

"Well if you watch one of the ending it could be... But I don't see why it should be romantic."

"Chloe... You know what day it is?"

"Since I don't do school anymore you know I don't really follow the calendar so closely. Why?"

"Never mind, pizza and Blade Runner sounds just fine. I need to go now, next class is about to start."

"I'll come pick you up at six."

"That's a date!" Rachel grabbed her school bag and went back inside. She would have to skip the Vortex party but she couldn't be expected to show up at every one of them anyway.

* * *

"She said it's a date... What did she mean by that? Did she mean a friendly Date or a Date Date? I guess I'll find out tonight!" Chloe continued to drive on her way to American Rust.


End file.
